The House of Plantagenet

The House of Plantagenet had its origins in a cadet branch of the original counts of Anjou, the dynasty established by Fulk I of Anjou at the beginning of the 10th century. The Plantagenet dynasty ruled England for over three hundred years, from 1154 -1485. They were a remarkable family, providing England with fourteen of its kings.

The surname Plantagenet, which was to become one of the most famous in England, seems to have derived from a nickname adopted by Geoffrey, Count of Anjou, the father of Henry II and refers to his habit of wearing a sprig of broom or planta genista in his helmet.

The dynasty produced such varied characters as the energetic Henry II, arguably one of England's greatest monarchs and his legenday son, Richard the Lionheart, who lead the Third Crusade against Saladin into the Holy Land. The highly aesthetic Henry III and his son, the indominatable Edward I, who conquered Wales and became known as the 'Hammer of the Scots' for his campaigns into that country, where he fought William Wallace and Robert the Bruce, the most famous of Scotland's sons, and Henry V, the conqueror of France, who bequeathed the diadems of both countries to his pious and ineffectual son, Henry VI.

The Plantagenets, described by Bacon as 'a race much dipped in their own blood" finally destroyed themselves in the bloody dynastic struggle we know of as the Wars of the Roses. The later Plantagenets became divided into the Houses of Lancaster and York which descended through different sons of King Edward III. The Yorkist king Richard III was the last of his house, when he was killed in battle on Bosworth Field, to be displaced by the Tudors, it was the end of an era. The male line of the Plantagenets became extinct with the execution in 1499 of Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of George, Duke of Clarence, in the reign of Henry VII, the first Tudor.

Plantagenet Monarchs

Monarch		Birth and Reign	Married
Henry II		b.1133 son of- Geoffrey, Count of Anjou & Matilda of Normandy r.1154-89	Eleanor of Aquitaine
Richard I		b. 1157 son of- Henry II &Eleanor of Aquitaine r. 1189-99	Berengaria of Navarre
King John		b. 1167 son of- Henry II &Eleanor of Aquitaine r. 1199-1216	(1)Isabel of Gloucester (2)Isabella of Angouleme
Henry III		b.1207 son of- King John & Isabella of Angouleme r. 1216-72	Eleanor of Provence
Edward I		b.1239 son of - Henry III &Eleanor of Provence r. 1272-1307	(1)Eleanor of Castille (2)Margaret of France
Edward II		b. 1284 son of- Edward I &Eleanor of Castille r.1307-27	Isabella of France
Edward III		b1312 son of- Edward II &Isabella of France r. 1327 -77	Philipa of Hainault
Richard II		b.1367 son of- Edward, the Black Prince & Joan of Kent r.1377- 99	(1Anne of Bohemia (2)Isabel of France
Henry IV		b.1366 son of John of Gaunt & Blanche of Lancaster r.1399-1413	(1)Mary de Bohun (2)Joan of Navarre
Henry V		b.1387 son of- Henry IV & Mary de Bohun r. 1413- 22	Catherine of Valois
Henry VI		b.1421 son of- Henry V &Catherine of Valois r 1422- 61 & 1470-71	Margaret of Anjou
Edward IV		b.1442 son of Richard Duke of York &Cecily Neville r. 1461 -70 & 1471-83	Elizabeth Woodville
Edward V		b. 1470 son of- Edward IV &Elizabeth Woodville r. 1483
Richard III		b. 1452 son of- Richard Duke of York & Cecily Neville r. 1483-85	Anne Neville

Additional Information on the period